Southwest Ohio schools report several MRSA cases

MRSA is spread by skin-to-skin contact and is more common in athletes.

CINCINNATI (AP) — Several southwest Ohio school districts have reported cases of staph infections among pupils, including some confirmed to be the superbug strain that is resistant to many common antibiotics.

Officials at suburban Winton Woods City Schools said a high school student has a confirmed case of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, which goes by the nickname MRSA. Mason City Schools has two confirmed cases, and two cases have been reported by parents of pupils at two elementary schools in Middletown.

The MRSA skin condition usually looks like an infected pimple or boil, but it can worsen to redness, swelling, pain and discharge, Winton Woods Superintendent Camille Nasbe said in her letter to parents Tuesday.

“It can be mistaken as a spider or insect bite,” she wrote. “MRSA is spread by skin-to-skin contact and is more common in athletes because of close, personal contact.”

The district said it is sanitizing the areas where the student may have contracted the infection.

Mason City Schools sent a letter to parents Friday. The district has one confirmed MRSA case at its early childhood center, one confirmed case at Mason Heights elementary and one case of an infection that has not yet been confirmed at its middle school, said Tracey Carson, district spokeswoman.

“It doesn’t mean we have an outbreak,” Carson said. “We have 10,700 students. You have a few students in different buildings. We’ve taken extra precautions.”

Among other things, the district disinfected its 124 school buses and its playground equipment.

Students at other Ohio schools have been diagnosed with MRSA, including in Wilmington and West Union. In Fairborn, schools closed for a day last week because of at least one MRSA case.

The infection was blamed for the Oct. 15 death of a 17-year-old student in Virginia.